Well, at least 60 of the 100 or so I have planted. The front three rows, all in great or at least semi-great soil are Better Boy, Red Delicious and Red Stuffer. This is the first year for me for these except the Delicious. But the BB is supposed to be just as productive.
A super producer tomato plant should yield 45 pounds of tomatoes under perfect conditions; a very good plant 35 pounds, again under excellent conditions. The average of lots of studies seems to be 15-18 pounds per plant, but not grown under perfect or even near-perfect conditions.
So my challenge to myself is to harvest at least 1200 pounds of ripe, edible tomatoes from the first two rows and hopefully 300 pounds from the Stuffers (they are hallow so weigh a lot less than normal toms).
I'm weaving the plants, cutting off leaves that are not real green, fertilizing with compost teas every other week. The ground can handle lots of rain, and I can water if a drought happens. But the main thing I cannot control is the temps. A couple of years ago we had a week of 100+ temps and three weeks of 92+ temps. A possibly great tomato crop became lousy compost.
1500 pounds of toms from 60 plants. As Casey Kasem said, keep your feet on the ground but keep reaching fro the stars. I've subscribed to the idea of "Shoot for the moon but be happy to hit the top of very tall trees."
Mike
A super producer tomato plant should yield 45 pounds of tomatoes under perfect conditions; a very good plant 35 pounds, again under excellent conditions. The average of lots of studies seems to be 15-18 pounds per plant, but not grown under perfect or even near-perfect conditions.
So my challenge to myself is to harvest at least 1200 pounds of ripe, edible tomatoes from the first two rows and hopefully 300 pounds from the Stuffers (they are hallow so weigh a lot less than normal toms).
I'm weaving the plants, cutting off leaves that are not real green, fertilizing with compost teas every other week. The ground can handle lots of rain, and I can water if a drought happens. But the main thing I cannot control is the temps. A couple of years ago we had a week of 100+ temps and three weeks of 92+ temps. A possibly great tomato crop became lousy compost.
1500 pounds of toms from 60 plants. As Casey Kasem said, keep your feet on the ground but keep reaching fro the stars. I've subscribed to the idea of "Shoot for the moon but be happy to hit the top of very tall trees."
Mike